After 58 days of drilling, Saskatchewan’s deepest well reached a depth of nearly 3.4 km near Estevan, Saskatchewan.
The Petroleum Technology Research Centre’s Aquistore project will be the first project in the world to integrate commercial-scale CO2 capture, transportation, and injection from a coal-fired electrical generating station into a deep geological formation.
“At 3396.0 m Total Vertical Depth, the PTRC’s Aquistore well is the deepest well drilled to date in the province,” said the office of Energy and Resources.
Aquistore’s process involves permanently storing carbon dioxide (CO2) deep underground in a brine and sandstone formation to reduce greenhouse gases otherwise expelled into the air.
Carbon dioxide will be liquidized and piped from SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Plant and is expected to be operational in 2013.
A second “observation” well of comparable depth is expected to commence drilling this month.
Saskatchewan’s emission targets are to reduce 2006 levels of greenhouse gases by 20 per cent by 2020.
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